Seal for sliding door



Aug. 20, 1963 Y H. E. COVERLEY 0 3.

. I SEAL FOR SLIDING DOOR V Filed July 21, 1961 2 SheetsSheet 1 InventorA llorney Aug. 1963 H. E. COVERLEY 3,100,918

SEAL FOR SLIDING DOOR Filed July 21, 1961 2 Sheets-Shet 2 In venlor AHorn 2 y United States Patent 3,100,918 SEAL FUR SLIDING TUDOR Harold E.Coverley, Redhourne, England, assignor to General Motors Corporation,Detroit, Mich, a corporation of Delaware Filed July 21, 1961, Ser. No.125,768 Claims priority, application Great Britain Aug. 16, 1960 1Claim. (11. 20--ll9) This invention relates to the sealing of doors byresilient seal strips.

With slidable doors good sealing round the whole perimeter againstpassage of air through the junction between the closed door and the doorsurround presents difiiculty, especially in vehicles, because if theseal strip constantly exerts a strong pressure the resulting frictioncauses difficulty in sliding the door, and causes wear of the sealstrip. By the present invention these difficulties can be overcome.

The invention is applicable to doors in general, whether hinged orslidable, and is not restricted to vehicle doors, it has however moreadvantages when applied to slidable doors of vehicles.

A seal strip according to the invention may be on the door itself orlaid round the edge of the opening to be closed by the door.

The scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims; how theinvention may :be performed is particu larly described below withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is an elevation of one form of seal strip;

FIGURE 2 is a transverse section through a slidable side door of avehicle, showing a seal strip according to FIGURE 1 mounted in position,the door being open;

FIGURE 3 is a View similar to FIGURE 2, but with the door closed;

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged transverse section through the seal strip, online IV-IV in FIGURE 1, at the mo ment when the door is beginning toopen;

FIGURE 5 is an elevation of a second form of seal strip;

FIGURE 6 is a transverse section similar to FIGURE 2, but showing thesecond form of seal strip;

FIGURE 7 is a view similar to FIGURE 6, but showing the door closed;

FIGURE 8 is a section similar to FIGURE 4, but taken on the lineVIII-VIII in FIGURE 5.

Referring to FIGURES 1-4 of the drawings, a closed motor vehicle body 1has a slidable side door 2 which is closed by sliding it forwardly ofthe vehicle and opened by sliding it rearwardly. Around the edge 3, 4,4a surrounding the opening to be closed by the door 2 is laid a tubularseal strip 5 of resilient material, comprising forward and rear verticalruns 6, 7, and top and bottom horizontal runs 8, 9. To the vertical run6 is attached, by a neck 10 an elongated sac 11 for inflating the sealstrip. The seal surface 12 of the strip has a clearance from the door(see FIGURE 1) until the latter is quite shut. The sac 11 is laidagainst the surround part 4a so that it is opposite the adjacent edge 13of the door 2, while the strip proper is at the side of the door and hasa clearance inwardly thereof. The sac 11 and the seal surface 12 are atright angles as seen in section and are secured to the right-angledsurround portions 4, 4a. In closing the door there is no contact betweenthe seal surface 12 and the door until the forward edge 12 of the doorstrikes the sac 11, and by compressing it inflates the seal part of thestrip 5 round the entire perimeter, thereby causing the seal surface 12to press against the door 2 and make a seal (FIGURE 3). In moving thedoor from the shut position (FIGURE 3) towards the 3 ,100,918 PatentedAug. 20, I963 open position (FIGURE 2), the initial movement of the doorcauses the seal part 12 to roll sideways in the vertical lengths or runs6, 7 thereof (see FIGURE 4), while at the top and bottom horizontallengths 8, 9 the door slides over the seal surface 12 withoutdifliculty. As soon as pressure of the door on the sac 11 is releasedthe seal strip 5 defiates and the door opens easily, as the seal surface12 then becomes spaced from the door.

A second embodiment according to the invention is shown in FIGURES 5-8,in this the strip 5 is mounted in a similar way to FIGURE 3 but differsin its own con struction. This second form of strip has an elongated sac11a extending from top to bottom of the forward vertical length 6 ofstrip 5. The sac Ila is attached to the body of the strip 5 along theentire length of the sac, by a portion 14 of narrower cross section thanthat of the sac. The Way the arrangement works is exactly the same as inFIGURES 1-4: on sliding the door 2 forwardly against the elongated sacIla, it compresses the sac and thereby causes the strip 5 to inflate andpress the seal surface 12 against the inner surface of the door 2, thusmaking a seal.

In either embodiment strip 5 may either be endless, as shown in FIGURE5, or it may have two closed ends which are abutted together, asindicated at 15 in FIG URE l. The disposition of the sac 11 or Ila atright angles to the seal surface 12 may be secured by appropriatelymoulding the rubber or like resilient material of the strip; oralternatively it may be secured merely by the securing of the strip 5and sac 11 or Ila to the body surround 4, do.

In each embodiment the sac 11 (or Ila) is shorter than the strip 5. InFIGURE 1-4 however, the sac II is shorter than the forward verticallength 6 of the strip; whereas in FIGURES 5-8 is of the same length asthe forward vertical lengtho.

I claim:

The combination comprising, a door frame having an opening therein andan abutting surface looated generally normal to the plane of saidopening, a door movable between opened and closed positions with respectto said opening in a plane located generally parallel to the plane ofsaid opening and intersecting said abutting surface, a hollow tubularsealing strip mounted on said door frame adjacent said opening andlocated intermediate the plane of said opening and the plane of doormovement and completely surrounding said opening, said door beinglocated in overlapping relationship to said opening in the closedposition thereof, an elongated hollow fluid containing compressiblereservoir mounted on said abutting surface and including means engagedby the leading edge portion of said door upon movement thereof to saidclosed position, and means communicating said reservoir with said strip,engagement of the leading edge portion of said door with said reservoircompressing said reservoir and forcing the fluid contained therein intosaid strip to expand said strip transversely of the plane of saidopening and into engagement with a portion of said door overlapping saidopening to provide a seal bet-ween said door frame and said door.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS647,379 Davis Apr. 10, 1900 FOREIGN PATENTS 403,097 Great Britain Dec.5, 1933 986,854 France Apr. 4, 1951 729,980 Great Britain May 11, 1955

